The Luminary
by Roarke-015
Summary: On the dark side of the moon, an evil force awakens as it sheds a portion of its power to create a weapon of immeasurable suffering. A lone Titan will descend and attempt to claim with weapon as his own.


Roarke-015 moved with all the lithe grace of a mighty tank though the ruin of rock and metal that made up most of the moon. Rocks crunched beneath the Titan's feet as he made his way slowly about the courtyard of a once magnificent township, now the ruin of the moon and reclaimed the city and reduced it to little more than corpses of skyscrapers collapsed over wide street ways and what were once sprawling forests but where now stretches of barren, grey soil – or whatever passed for soil here. Still, Roarke-015 couldn't bring himself to dislike the natural satellite, it was cold, brutal, and blunt, mirroring how he imagined himself before that first demise, before being reborn in the light.

He was on a mission, set to obtain a weapon known only as The Luminary, given to him by Commander Zavala himself; the last thing Roarke intended to do was to let down that ancient master. His armor gleamed under the less filtered sun as he rounded a bend on his Sparrow, a sleek mount that could cross a couple kilometers in the span of a second, until he found what his Ghost had labeled as an objective. Leaping from the machine the Exo summoned his companion before his feet even touched the rocky surface of Luna. The Ghost, living up to its namesake, materialized from nothing more than a few sparks of light and spun its fore-segments clockwise, the Titan watched it with a sort of repressed pride; his companion, his Ghost, was such a marvelous machine, more so than any other Ghost if only because this one was his.

The Ghost swirled, bringing its bright blue eye to fall upon Roarke, the fore-segments and aft-segments of its shell spinning in opposite directions for a rotation before settling on the metal seed of its body "Roarke, I don't like this, few Guardians have returned from the Dark Side of the moon. We've already made it there, going further is courting the Darkness to –"

Roarke pushed the Ghost aside with the back of his hand, using more restraint then with anything else he'd ever attempted in this life "We won't fail Zavala, Ghost, the Tower needs this." With that, he pushed his way past the floating diamond composed of Light. The Ghost spun its aft-segments and longed to reach out and stop its Guardian, protect him and the Light he embodied but it was helpless. It chased after the impossibly large back of the Titan and melted into his armor. The two became one again.

Roarke-015 reached for the automatic rifle slung over his back, a Suros weapon, and brought the intimidating weapon to his shoulder. The sound of awakening Hive was heavy in the dead air, amplified by the high walls of the valley his path took him through, Arc energy filtered through the air around the Titan as he prepared for a fight. Hive while under the light of the sun was one thing, Roarke-015 didn't know what to expect from these most ancient of enemies, but it wouldn't be good. Suddenly, a bolt of Arc energy as large as a watermelon flew in an arc over his head; it collided with the ground and exploded as Roarke ducked and spun himself on the ball of his foot.

The roar of a Knight was met with the harsh bark of the Suros Regime, it shot out a brigade of rounds and all found their home against the Knight's hard carapace forcing the alien-demon to stumble back. Roarke leaned back, extending his arms out to either side and launched himself forward; he grabbed a foot of air while traveling over the meter and a half of distance between him and his prey while he unslung a shotgun. As the Exo landed, the giant Knight found its footing again and raised its hand up and over its chest, Roarke-015 slammed the barrel of his weapon into the things gut and pulled the trigger once, twice, the Knight fumbled back as its body turned to ash. The Ghost, watching through its Guardian's eyes, was proud of his choice's strength but this was no moment of triumph. "Watch out!"

Roarke was slammed in the back by another bolt of Arc energy, he let out a huff of air as he spun back to face his new attacker while taking Suros Regime back into his hands. There were more than he had expected. Meting his gaze was a cabal of four Knights –all defended by shields of sparking blue energy – accompanied by a band of twelve Major Acolytes, they lacked a shield but made up for that by sheer number and fire power. All but two of the Knights held devastating boomers, the two Knights who forwent their projectile weapons held up blades of darkness. The Titan inhaled deeply, his mind went into overdrive as he attempted to conjure a method with which he could rip these forces asunder. Suddenly he saw something he thought he'd never witness.

One of the Knights lifted its dark blade and brought it down onto an Acolyte, bisecting the smaller Hive before it erupted into ash. 'What?' His Ghost questioned inside of his head, 'Fratricide? This is the Hive, right?'

"Look," Roarke whispered to the Ghost, "they aren't bunching together... and they aren't attacking."

'Patience? The Hive has never shown this type of methodical thinking before. I think we should—'

"Don't." Roarke barked before he sprang into action. His left hand extended and chucked out a rod which imbedded itself to the left of the group of Hive, the Hive let out a bellow as they were struck, those that weren't consumed by the discharging Arc bolts retreated nearer their brethren before bolts of deadly Arc energy were sent flying through the air. Roarke let out a mighty laugh as he held down the trigger of his weapon, sending ammunition flying towards the Acolytes and Knights and with each of them that collapsed the Arc power within the Titan grew until it surged over him. The bio-lights within his throat surged, enjoyment, as the Exo took to the air, Arc bolts flying past his form before his fists collided with the ground around the Knights' feet. Three of the four remaining Knights, and the few remaining Acolytes, were caught in the initial explosion and their forms were consumed in the flare of Arc-fire.

Roarke lunged towards the last Knight, his fists colliding with their Arc shields, bringing down it down with a hard isnap/i, before he brought his shotgun forward and fired it – his armor began to scream in protest as the Knight's boomer continued to fire with each shot hitting its mark, he could feel his Ghost panicking –four shots rang out and the Knight's body collapsed into ash and fluttered away in the wind. Roarke fell to his knees and panted inside his helmet, using the shotgun as a type of crutch as he caught his breath "Woo~" he said aloud, standing slowly, "I haven't had such a good workout in a while."

The Ghost spawned and swirled around the slowly standing Titan as shook his still-overworking tubeweave embedded within his synthetic muscle of his arms and legs. The Ghost wondered around the Exo, analyzing the warrior with a bright blue light before its spun its aft-segments and pushed itself up into his masked face "Can we go back now?!" It hated this excursion, this unknown, these Hive were different then those it knew on the other side of the moon. Roarke's throat lights pulsed with a type of pleasure and, quickly, he bumped his helmet against the Ghost, pushing it back and causing a surprised "Ah!"

"Let's go on, Little Light, I need to make my mark, right? Like Wei Ning." The Ghost sighed and shook itself before dematerializing.

'Why, oh why, did I ever tell you anything of that Titan?'

"Because," Roarke began to reload the empty shotgun, "you love me." He switched to his Suros and repeated the process, reloading the weapon, before looking up into the gaping maw of the black temple-palace. "What do you think we'll find down there?" He questioned the invisible Ghost as he descended the rest of the way down the cavern to the passage way of the massive structure, it was hundreds of metes tall but only as wide as the cavern – maybe fifty at its widest point. The architecture typical Hive, a hard chitinous material used to make up the bulk of the face, hard edges, pitted here and there except there is something else, something entirely iotheri about the place; a dark, glossy rock dotted the front of the structure, creating something like bumps on the surface.

The Ghost whirled, taking in every detail through Roarke's optics, before offering a simple 'Who knows? These Hive – this entire place – is new to me, I'd even hazard a guess that Vanguard are lacking in any real information.'

Roarke-015 nodded; too enthralled in the building he neared to say anything else. As he neared the building, the bump-like blackness began to look more and more like hundreds of eyes staring at him. Even the normally comforting weight of the rocket launcher on his back did little to alleviate the Titan of his worries. The reflection of light in those black pools of endless night began to look more and more like pitch white pupils – was that his light reflected in that darkness? That ever moving, tiny sun? – He lifted Suros as he mounted the first step, then the second; the third was the landing on which the door rested. He stepped over the threshold and –

A brilliant flash of light.

– Roarke-015 was thrown across the width of the hallway, he crashed into the wall with a loud ibang. /i 'Roarke! Roarke! Are you okay?!' The Ghost shouted inside of the Exo's head, it opted to keep itself hidden incase something came by. It was a smart move.

Roarke stood and shook his head then looked around at the internal of the building "What threw me?" He tested out his arms, stretched his fingers, found a perversion of Arc energy jumping all over his armor. The lightening wasn't right, it wasn't that bright blue-white one might expect, instead it was crimson fading to black. This was raising the metaphorical hairs on the back of his neck to rise.

'That not-arc energy has been sparking off you for a few seconds now, what is it?'

The Exo shook his head "What threw me, Ghost, and where is it?"

The Ghost shuddered, 'Look up, Guardian.'

Roarke, begrudgingly, lifted his gaze skyward and... And was looking out of the door he had just came in through. "What... How?"

'It's a gate.'

"Even Vex gates don't operate like this." Roarke said his voice slowly climbing as both fear and excitement began to build ever higher within his barrel chest. The Ghost spun, it often wondered why Roarke seemed so much more open to fear and anxiety than any Titan he'd seen before, maybe that was why it picked him, a Titan who could think with more self-preservation than another Titan was likely to live longer. Longevity was very much needed.

'Best approximation? We are in a netherworld. We stumbled upon a Hive God-thing's palace."

Roarke repeatedly clenched and unclenched his fists, the not-Arc – which, upon closer observation, related closer to Solar energy dressed as Arc – energy bounced from the Titan's large arms to his chest and down his legs before being grounded into the floor. "The Luminary, is it close?"

Only then did the Ghost spawn and push itself right into Roarke's face, its reflection shining off the dark grey helmet "Roarke. We. Need. To. Leave. A full fire team of six isn't even a challenge for a Hive God-thing in its netherworld! You aren't going to –"

"Ghost," Roarke's voice was a boom of thunder, the Ghost lowered itself before rising to a tenth of its previous height, "The Luminary, is it close?" The Titan felt bad for forcing the Ghost into submission, he viewed the two more as teammates than Guardian and Ghost but he wasn't going to allow insubordination. The Ghost shifted on its axis then spun its aft-segments before an objective spawned on Roarke's HUD. "Thank you, Ghost." The Ghost dematerialized, Roarke was raked with guilt, and who else to deal with that guilt than the smarter than average Hive?

Roarke made his way down a hallway, it was Hive, with that iother/i factor. More bumps, like mounds of darkness dotting along the walls and ceiling, their dark pits returned the glare of his inner-Light, Now they looked like compound eyes, hundreds of hexagons piled over the surface of the mounds, but Roarke kept his cool about him, his hands stayed steady on his weapon which was held out before him ready for the slightest hint of Hive. Nothing came. No enemy was forthcoming. No release from his inner guilt greeted him as he turned a corner, and then he saw them.

Thousands of Thrall kneeled around hundreds of Acolytes, each of which held up large bowls of a bubbling green liquid that released a sickening green smoke to fill the air above. All the Hive here, Acolyte and Thrall alike, were clad in dirty green chitin, they were an emerald army. Roarke-015 slipped back behind the corner, inhaling a deep breath that he hadn't taken in since he first came upon the room of worship several seconds ago. "Ghost," he whispered as if they could hear him past the helmet and over the murmuring and chattering of the thousand of Thrall, "Did you record all of that?" The Ghost was silent, stunned? Roarke barked out the question again and the Ghost stuttered back to life with a shutter at the back of his mind.

'Yes. Did you see them? There's an army!'

"Get it together. Transmit it to the Speaker –"

'Done.'

"– and Eris Morn"

'Eris? The Speaker will consult her if he –'

"We'll need her expertise on it as soon as possible, Ghost, send it to her."

'Transmitting now. Receiving radio chatter—Roarke, we're on Titan!'

That froze the Exo still "Titan? The moon?!"

'Radio is spotty, the Reef is being used to boost the signal but the Queen will want in.'

An echo sounded out. Roarke pushed himself from the wall and readied his weapon, finger on the trigger with the sights based wholly on the doorway leading to the emerald army. "Yes! Yes! Do whatever needs to be done! Get me an open channel!" Static barked in his ear, then toned down and was replaced by three voices, though it could have easily been a hundred for all the sense they were making. "One at a time," Roarke commanded, he may not have held the highest rank in the conversation, but he'd be damned if he died because of their refusing to wait, "Eris, any translations you could pick up?" Slowly he edged back towards the corner as Eris's voice chimed in.

"What have you stumbled upon, Titan?"

The worshipping Hive had shifted; a sphere was slowly being lowered in from a ceiling impossibly high and the Hive had shifted to worship this sphere over the Acolytes, who joined the Thrall on their knees. The sphere was that inky black, glossy material that reflected Light, even inner-Light. Roarke pulled his head back and shuddered visibly. "Do you have any information, Eris?"

A pause, then "Yes, it's another sect, they call themselves the Dark Spawn."

Roarke almost laughed, the Dark Spawn? That would explain the mounds of darkness. "Anything else?"

"They worship another God-King, brother of Oryx, Xa'kull," the air grew cold with only the mention of the name, like the palace was reacting to its master's appellation, "Guard your light" and with that, her voice vanished. Hopefully to find out more about this Xa'kull.

"Any questions, Queen of the Awoken?" The Speaker's voice, it rang with false confidence.

"You allow your guardians to anger the Hive!" The Queen's voice was deep with anger, like liquid heat transmitted over sound waves, "Pull back, Titan!"

"With all due respect, milady –"

"Quite, Guardian," The Shaper interrupted Roarke-015, "Mara, you will be protected."

The Queen huffed before clicking off. The Speaker let out a slow sigh and something muffled moved in the background, then "Titan, return to the tower, we can't afford to anger the Hive."

"Speaker," Roarke started, "I need – " a loud screech sounded off coming from the room of worship, the Exo snapped around and faced the threshold again to see nothing. "Ghost, close the channel." A soft click, Roarke rounded the corner and watched as the inky black orb birthed seemed to absorb the green smoke from within the room and used it to form three points of infinitely dense green dots, Hive eyes. Beneath the orb resting on a hovering platform floated a mass of tentacles. He knew, he didn't know how he knew but he knew that was the Luminary. The horde of emerald Acolytes and Thrall had retreated to press against the walls of the worship room, they were replaced by several Knights and Wizards, all clad in sickly green chitin.

Roarke clenched his fists and noticed much to his surprise that Arc-Solar energy had returned to abound over his thick arms bouncing over his armor and snapping around his head and chest. The Knights and Wizards were his first target, Roarke snapped off a rocket, it exploded in a brilliant display of fire and a third of their number vanished, another rocket and another portion of the Knights vanished, a third rocket and some part of the population of Thrall and Acolytes vanished. Wizards screamed out and launched a salvo of Arc bolts, five Wizards, ten trails of Arc bolts. Thrall nipped at the Titan's heels. He inhaled sharply then jumped and when he moved again he was teleported several feet forward "Yes!" he barked as he turned around and slammed his fists onto the ground, a giant flower of Solar energy erupted from the Exo's back. The energy consumed the Thrall and unarmed Acolytes. A dome of Arc energy shot out from the hunched over Roarke-015, consuming the Wizards and Knights who still lived.

Roarke stood, leaned back and allowed himself the thrill of having discovered something none had touched before him, and he stared the dark stone directly into its eyes. The dark smoke began to take the outline of the things head, two long curved back horns sprouted from a head wider than it was long; a third thing extended backwards from the head and whipped angrily as it watched the Titan. Roarke looked around, the exhaustion within his body was replaced in a snap with adrenaline, he leapt up and blinked towards the hovering island upon with the Luminary levitated.

It was unlike any weapon Roarke had ever laid eyes upon. As it was, it resembled a mass of tentacles pointing downwards, revealing a handle of sorts, so he did the only thing one could do. He slide his fingers into the grip and pulled the weapon over his arms, the tentacles snapped around his arm, constricting around the metal of his armor in a tight grasp. The barrel of the weapon, if indeed you would call it a barrel, extended only five inches past Roarke's fist and where the tentacle mass would has formed a simple fist was a collect of ivory teeth, ten several inch long razor sharp interlocking teeth, that raised up on their own accord. The God-thing incased on darkness let out a low bellow that shook the entire palace and form below hundreds of thousands of calls rang back.

A wave of that dark green smoke wavered over the front of the orb, the Titan lifted the weapon slowly, the God-thing pressed its hand against the casing of the inky Darkness, its hand was misshapen, one more finger than there should have been and the middle two extended far past both the pinky and forefingers. A sigil was embedded within the smoke, the Greek letter omega with a 'V' cutting into it. From this sigil a wave of dark energy shot out, faster than thought, faster than Light, and collided with Roarke's head. The Exo's head snapped back, he stumbled a step, two, before he righted himself. He looked back up, the giant made of smoke was gone from the inky black orb, all that returned to him was a miniature sun on the surface of the orb.

'Titan... your arm.'

His arm was consumed by the weapon, more teeth punctured his arms following the tentacles, the tentacles were sprouting teeth, they had moved up as if to claim more and more of its new owner. The Ghost was screaming, Roarke was suffering in silence, his Light was being tarnished, and his purity was torn asunder. Roarke fell to his knees, pressing the teethed-barrel against the intricate floor; his breathing was coming in ragged gasps. His Ghost materialized before him, its shell tarnished by circular burns as if the teeth and tried to consume it as well. "Roarke, are you well?"

The Titan stood on shaky legs, his arm pulsed with pain, and the rest of him felt as if it was ready to accept his second death; Solar-Arc energy shuddered around most of him, though it kept well away from the inky darkness that now made up his right arm. "Y – Yeah," He lifted the weapon that was his right arm now, cannon if ever there was one. Towards the barrel the weapon faded to a light blue though it was obstructed heavily by the teeth that rested over it, "Should I shoot it?"

"You should remove it."

"I don't know if I can," Roarke said honestly, fearfully, before lifting the cannon. With nothing more then a thought, the teeth lifted themselves and the weapon fired; the first shot was an explosion of Arc energy, after which it fired like Suros Regime, faster than a scout rifle but slower than most auto-rifles, none of them explode like the first. Roarke nodded approvingly, the Ghost shuddered and dematerialized. The Titan turned and expected to see Hive, but none had returned, there was no second emerald army waiting to pounce. For that he was thankful, even with this weapon, the Exo doubted what he could accomplish much without another super ready.

He jumped from the floating island, landed hard on golden-green floor, the world was painted in colors, now, and he could see it. He could faintly make out his Light, a dense mountain of strength and power; he could feel each member of the Hive as they hid in the shadows, watching. "What is this?" he asked his Ghost, extending a hand to watch the Solar-Arc energy dance around him "Is this how a Sunsinger views the world?"

'I'll tell you when we return to the Tower, I'll even settle for Luna, get going.'

It took hours to find the doorway back, the palace shifted like an unending maze. The way was illuminated only through the door on Luna through which the Traveler's light shone like the brightest star. On the Moon, Roarke summoned his dropship and was trans-matted inside before he could even blink. The ship was cozy, small, but large enough for him and whatever cargo he might have been carrying back to the tower as a trophy of his triumph and strength. Ghost dematerialized the helmet, for the first time in weeks, Roarke saw the world entirely through his brightly burning red optics, and his throat lights flashed an unspoken thank you. "Ghost, I require a reset, awake me when we reach the tower."

The Ghost bobbed, Roarke's optics blinked shut.

The Luminary began to click to itself, calling out in some old tongue.

The Ghost snapped around and scanned the weapon "Did you... speak? What are you?"

The Luminary clicked several more times before the top and bottom corners of the teeth pulled up slightly, a mocking smile.


End file.
